Category Archives: Married Joy

Here's a bittersweet tale that should nonetheless brighten your Friday with its wonderful witness to Married Joy:

A couple married for 62 years recently died four hours apart while lying next to each other. The story of their lifelong love has quickly gone viral.

KERO-TV reported that Don and Maxine Simpson traveled the world, adopted two boys, and participated in many different activities together. According to their relatives:

“Gram woke up and saw him, and held hands and they knew that they were next to each other,” said Sloan.

But what no one knew is how they would leave this world.

“I knew in my heart this is what’s supposed to happen. Grandma and grandpa are supposed to be together and grandma and grandpa are going to die together,” she said.

And that’s exactly what happened.

“I could hear on the monitor, she took her last breath and I came to check. She had passed,” said Sloan.

Maxine was gone.

“I walked them out with her body, walked back in to check on grandpa and he quit breathing as soon as her body left the room. He left with her, and they passed four hours apart from each other,” she said.

The man, that married the love of his life more than 60 years ago, was only hours behind in death.

Godspeed to them in their final journey together and may they be reunited in the life to come!

Zelmyra and Herbert Fisher married on May 13, 1924. In 2008, they broke the Guinness World Record for being the longest married living couple. Both died at the age of 105--Herbert in 2011 and Zelmyra in 2013.

Before their deaths, the Fishers answered fourteen questions about their relationship and what made their marriage last for nearly 90 years. One of their tips will comfort anyone who is preparing for marriage or hoping to strengthen his or her marriage:

"There’s no secret to our marriage, we just did what was needed for each other and our family."

More than 50 years ago, six Michigan couples married--and they have been friends ever since. Each couple wed within weeks of the others back in 1963, meaning they have been married for a combined 300 years. The couples have all remained friends over the years, participating first in each other's weddings and eventually each other's children's weddings.

“You have to be able to joke about the bad times,” said Lorna Roka, 70, of St. Charles. She and Bob Roka, now 72, married June 15, 1963.

[...]

“After 50 years, you pretty much say what you want to say. It doesn’t matter,” said Tom Metiva, 73. "You have to remember four words: Yes, dear, you're right. I have a hard time saying all four of them together, sometimes."

Nikki Blakeslee, 70, said she and her husband Gary, 71, have found a way to laugh every day. They live in Hemlock and were the last friends to marry that year, on Nov. 30, 1963...

“It’s just a matter of give and take,” Nikki Blakeslee said. “We’ve kept each other probably on an even keel. It seems to have worked for 50 years.”

She echoed the same advice as the others.

“Gary and I laughed every day, and we never go to bed mad. We have had little major arguments in our lifetime,” she said.

“When one is mad, the other person tries to make them come out of it. We always try to have laughter in our day. We have a lot of things in common. We do things together that we love.”

Before the group's female friends married their now-husbands, some of them graduated from nursing school together in 1962. The women played in a card club together for nearly 30 years. Two of the men, Bob Roka and Jim Mueller, have been friends since elementary school.

In the 2010 U.S. Census, only six percent of couples had been married for 50 years or longer. The story of these friends is stirring and advice from these faithful couples, now in their 70s, is certainly worth heeding!